Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Denny Hamlin On His Phoenix Heartbreak | NASCAR Press Conference

Transcript

Denny Hamlin On His Phoenix Heartbreak | NASCAR Press Conference · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  The emotions of of this one getting away and then is this
• 0:03
  the last one that may get away? I don't know.
• 0:07
  I don't I really don't have much for emotion right now.
• 0:09
  Just just numb about it because just in shock.
• 0:14
  That's about it. And you were two daughters were,
• 0:18
  you know, crying on pit Rd. after the race.
• 0:20
  What was the message to them? Something we can't control, you
• 0:25
  know, just, you know, certainly unfortunate circumstances, but
• 0:29
  you know, it's just some. It'll be one of those life
• 0:32
  lessons years down the road. About progress, Fox Sports, the
• 0:36
  NBC pre race thing seemed to have got gotten you emotional
• 0:40
  before the race. Were you still emotional during
• 0:44
  the race or were you did you get back in focus?
• 0:46
  Yeah. I was.
• 0:47
  I got back as soon as I'd got in the car.
• 0:49
  I got locked in for sure. And you'd said that you know
• 0:54
  you're done. You hope that you could see this
• 0:57
  one just to what? What's going to be?
• 0:59
  What? What are you going to tell him?
• 1:01
  Did the best I could, you know, you know, I, there's, there's
• 1:07
  just everything, everything I'm really prepared for, you know,
• 1:13
  happened today. And I felt like we responded
• 1:16
  and, you know, even losing track position at one point and just
• 1:19
  battling back and, you know, did really well on restarts.
• 1:23
  Hadn't been good on restarts, you know, for bulk of the year.
• 1:27
  And just, you know, just, yeah, they, the team brought a great
• 1:34
  championship car and I, I felt like I drove it just right up
• 1:39
  until, you know, 2 laps to go. And so yeah, this is this is the
• 1:45
  part that stinks. Zacksternyellow@nascar.com.
• 1:48
  Denny, obviously each of these moments are different.
• 1:53
  How is this time different? Well, I mean, it's just we're 40
• 1:59
  seconds from a championship. I'm I don't know, it's just
• 2:02
  unfortunate. I've I've the only difference
• 2:05
  before is the cautions came maybe a little sooner than that,
• 2:10
  but I don't know. It's just, gosh, it's you work
• 2:15
  so hard and you do. It's just this sport can drive
• 2:19
  you absolutely crazy because it's just sometimes speed,
• 2:22
  talent, all that stuff just does not matter.
• 2:25
  I saw you also wrapped your arms around the pit crew on pit Rd.
• 2:28
  after getting out of the race car.
• 2:31
  What do you take away from how strong of an effort this was
• 2:33
  from top to bottom on this eleven team, regardless of the
• 2:36
  result? Yeah, they did a great job and
• 2:38
  you know, we had one hiccup, but that was the only it wasn't
• 2:41
  their fault that we got fortunate there with the left
• 2:43
  foot tire that was flat under caution and they just they
• 2:49
  executed a great day. You know, wish man, I really
• 2:53
  wish I could have got it for for them.
• 2:55
  And you know, the while the championship like I, you know,
• 3:01
  it wouldn't change anything. I felt, you know, truly about
• 3:04
  myself. It just, man, I wanted it so bad
• 3:06
  for everyone else, you know, just all my supporters and all
• 3:09
  my friends and family and whatnot that, you know, they
• 3:12
  want it so bad, but it's just not going to happen.
• 3:16
  You were most nervous about something that was in your
• 3:19
  control messing up this day. Obviously this is about as much
• 3:24
  as it can stink, probably of something out of your control,
• 3:27
  but does that help soothe anything that you did your part?
• 3:33
  Yeah, I mean, Kyle Larson has the trophy, but we dominated.
• 3:46
  We did our job. We did the best we could.
• 3:49
  You know, they're a championship team and A championship driver,
• 3:52
  and they're going to win a hell of a lot more than just these
• 3:54
  two. But you know, when everyone had
• 3:58
  to bring their best, I think it was evident who was the best
• 4:02
  today. Jenna.
• 4:11
  Jennifer AP Danny, you said on TV you're praying no caution.
• 4:17
  When the caution did come out, did you think it's over?
• 4:22
  No, I didn't think it was over. I thought, well, all right,
• 4:25
  well, let me see where the other guys are at.
• 4:28
  Surely they can't, you know. Surely they, you know, they
• 4:34
  can't jump too far in front of me.
• 4:37
  And I just didn't think there'd be that many cars that took 2
• 4:39
  tires. But yeah, we, we can't, it's
• 4:43
  really hard to predict, you know, how many cars are going to
• 4:45
  do what and things like that. But, but yeah, I, I didn't think
• 4:58
  it was over, but when I lined up, yeah, row five, I thought
• 5:03
  it's, it'll be difficult for sure.
• 5:06
  Go to Wolfgang. Over here Danny, first of all,
• 5:13
  despite you're not winning the championship, from my heart
• 5:16
  congratulations straight race. As a non expert in that school
• 5:21
  also I'm coming over regularly. I was personally shocked with
• 5:25
  all these tire problems. What do you think is necessary
• 5:29
  to have a meeting with Scooty and discuss it?
• 5:31
  I think fortunately we can be happy that there were no more
• 5:34
  serious consequences with injured drivers.
• 5:38
  Well, I, I think they did a great job all season long.
• 5:41
  And I, I don't really, it's not their fault that we're running
• 5:45
  the tires flat. So, you know, I, I really
• 5:49
  applaud them and, and the tires that they've continued to bring
• 5:53
  to the racetrack and keep pushing the limits on, you know,
• 5:56
  softer, softer to try to put it back in the driver's hands.
• 6:00
  It's the teams, you know, it's they're the ones that, you know,
• 6:05
  come here and we test and, you know, there's real force test
• 6:08
  and they keep testing the limits of really how low you can go.
• 6:11
  And it's just it would be difficult for anyone to build a
• 6:14
  tire that can withstand what we're doing to it with this car.
• 6:19
  So they're in a really tough spot.
• 6:22
  And certainly, you know, I think, you know, if anything,
• 6:25
  they deserve credit. What's that?
• 6:27
  Not that you sign off the tire. No, it's not the design of the
• 6:30
  tire. No, it's just, yeah, we're,
• 6:33
  we're just running our tires super low because that's where
• 6:35
  they perform the best. And everyone's testing the
• 6:38
  limits. And we, you know, a lot of
• 6:41
  people found it. Yeah.
• 6:44
  Obviously, we're joined now also by William Byron and Chase
• 6:46
  Briscoe. We'll take one more for Denny
• 6:47
  and let him go, and we'll take it that Stephen.
• 6:54
  That's Stephen Stone, freshers.com Danny, obviously we
• 6:58
  don't know what platform we'll have next year, but with, you
• 7:00
  know, how close, you know, these races are, how close the points
• 7:03
  are and how big the stakes are, would it be beneficial to maybe
• 7:06
  have the final race end at the schedule distance?
• 7:10
  I mean, I don't know, I just golly in this moment I like
• 7:14
  never want to race a car ever again.
• 7:17
  I mean I just my fun meters. Pegged and and just where you go
• 7:24
  from here. Just the next hour, the next
• 7:26
  day, the next week. Yeah, it just, you know, I don't
• 7:30
  know, I there's not much, you know, the last couple times I've
• 7:33
  been doing this, I just either wasn't fast enough or, you know,
• 7:38
  circumstances there were some untimely yet yellows in the last
• 7:42
  time I was I did this. But yeah, I'm not really sure.
• 7:47
  You just take solace in like everything that we did,
• 7:50
  preparing was right and the way we guessed was right and it just
• 7:59
  didn't didn't work out, which is crazy.